'Scientific literacy': an exercise in model building

'Literacy' and 'science' are power words and the interaction between them is of potential interest to people working at other boundaries between text and content, such as that characterising wider disciplinary literacy. 'Scientific literacy' has a deep enough literature base to support an attempt to build a model of these interactions. If robust, such a model could synthesise existing literature and resolve differences within a narrower range of journals. This quantitative review suggests such a model based on a wide review of previous literature and then challenges it by comparing publication patterns in premium international journals dealing specifically with research in science education. The emergent model comprises interaction between Use of, Engagement with and Access to science and its application revealed changes in publication patterns both within and between the five science education research journals surveyed. The use of power words can obscure, rather than clarify, discussions that lead to curriculum and pedagogical decisions. Robust models can resolve multiple components of a complex field and make it easier to understand for newcomers, easier to explain when change seems necessary to those more deeply involved, and then expedite the prediction of fruitful areas for further work.